How to Play Mine Finder Puzzles

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You might be familiar with the popular computer game, “Minesweeper.” If so, Mine Finder isn’t that different. Instead of being played on a computer, it’s played on paper. And the numbers aren’t hidden.

How to Play Mine Finder

There are a series of mines hidden randomly in the grid. You need to work out the location of these mines and mark them in.

To help you work out the location of the mines, some squares have a number in them. This number tells you the number of mines that are hidden in adjacent squares to that one (up, down, left, right, and diagonal).

Squares that contain a number cannot contain a mine. Squares that are blank can contain a mine or may be empty.

Mine Finder Tips & Example

Let’s learn some helpful tips & tricks for solving a Mine Finder puzzle.

The example we’ll be using today is 16×16 and has 40 mines hidden in it.

Go BIG

Start with the biggest numbers.

In Mine Finder, 8 is the largest number possible (if a number has mines all around it). Every puzzle will be different, in the example, the biggest number we have is 4.

There are two of 4’s in the puzzle and both of them have only 4 blank spaces around them that can contain mines. So we’ve found 8 mines!

I like to keep track of the number of mines I’ve found by making marks along the top (or bottom, or side) of a puzzle.

Mine Finder Example 4 - keep going around

Around the Mines

Once you’ve found a mine, it’s important to check all around it and see what else you can uncover.

You’re likely going to be marking down squares that don’t contain mines.

For example, any number 1 that touches your found mine cannot have any other mines touching it.

In the two example images, I’ve marked out 3 X’s as places that cannot contain mines.

Mine Finder Example 5 - only one possibility

What’s Possible?

Basically, Mine Finder is all about finding squares where there’s only one possibility: mine or not.

In this case, the circled 2 has only two squares that are open so they must both be mines. These are the ideal types of numbers you’re looking for in Mine Finder.

That’s All

There’s nothing more too it. You’ll have to use some logic and sometimes leave a spot and try a new one. But you should be able to handle the puzzle from here!

Good luck!

If you want the solution, it’s at the end of the post!